Saturday, April 30, 2011

[Poll] Top 5 from April 2011 Season


Historically, April and October have been the bigger and better seasons than January and July season. Meaning we usually see more and better anime released during April and October. But I don't think there has been one that has such a big discrepancy between two consecutive season as this year.

Last season, the new releases are so horrible that I actually consider not to even fill my top 5 spot. I thought for sure the economic downturn has been affecting anime industry and we'll be seeing a steadily decrease in quality of new animes. Then April 2011 season came out, I realized my concern is somewhat unwarranted, because I for one, am again having trouble picking my top 5 for this season because there are too many good animes, not too few.

Ok, enough said, let's go into the real stuff, my pick for top 5 animes for April 2011 season are:
  1. Tiger & Bunny
  2. [C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control
  3. Deadman Wonderland
  4. Ao no Exorcist
  5. Denpa Onno to Seishun Otoko
Let's go down the list real quick, because I have a feeling that there are quite few people would disagree with me, not necessarily on the top 5 pick, rather, the order of top 5.

No. 1, Tiger & Bunny. I chose it to be in the top spot partially due to its quality, more importantly, unlike the others, this is some extremely creative concept. Think about it, we've seen battle in alternate worlds that linked to the real world; we've seen weird psycho conspiracy to force people to fight; we've see the son of devil rises up to defy the devil himself; and we've seen stories about weird people imaging stuff because they lost their memory. But superheros sponsored by corporations and make crime fighting a showbiz? That's some brilliant concept. While I'm optimistic about this anime, I think in order for it to come out on top in the season ending review, this brilliant concept alone would not be enough, there needs to be a good underlying plot like a conspiracy or something. We'll see.

No. 2, [C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control is just an interesting concept to begin with, especially it started off with a mystery that we all eagerly want to find out what's behind it. Even though Deadman Wonderland is the same way, [C] somehow just attracts me more.

No. 3, Deadman Wonderland, well, I think everybody would agree this one belongs to top 5.

No. 4, Ao no Exorcist, same here, an excellent manga with excellent adaptation, definitely top 5 material.

No. 5, Denpa Onno to Seishun Otoko, I actually went back and forth among this, 
Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai, Hidan no Aria, but ultimately chose Denpa because it's somewhat strange and unique, and there's a mystery to be figured out.

One anime that many would ask why I don't mention anywhere near top 5 is Steins; Gate. I think many think it deserves a spot in top 5. The reason I'm skeptical about this anime actually has something to do with a different anime that is related to it, Chaos; Head. It felt just as suspenseful or even more early on in the series, but it eventually turned into something that I would say is mediocre at best. So far it seems that Steins; Gate is just tracing the same route Chaos; Head took. So I'm afraid it too will turn out to be something not nearly as good as early on.

2 comments:

yoekix said...

In my opinion is that the top 5 far all shows that belong in the "actually good" category, so the order in the top 5 is just a personal preference.

I, for instance, do not like Tiger and Bunny due it being a bit to wacky. C would be my most expected one of the season followed by deadman with its good and foremost chaotic start. Ao no exorcist, i'm seeing that as the "follow a winning formula" setting, i can't deny that it is a good series, but that formula is getting boring.
Denpa onna, hard to see what it is and even where it is going, the start was acceptable, the second ep was the wrong way and the third ep was then back in the right way. I get more the feeling that they are clueless about what to do next.

Now following steins;gate i have to say i like the show but i'm staying veeery skeptical about its story line.

I'm also watching Hidan no Aria, but as i'm getting a bit bored of loli bossy types, it could very well be i would just stall this until it is completely aired

I feel that this season is a good one, there were 4 show that i wanted to see right of the bat (and that doesn't happen much), while ending up picking some smaller ones.

DamonSalvatore said...

Well, hoping we can see some competiting voting this time.. unlike last voting when everyone is voting Gosick.. doesnt want to see that happen again though... lol